Cassie Sandsmark and The Amazon Curse
by Mezzosopranogirl
Summary: When Cassie quits superheroing, she thinks she'll finally get to be normal until she's whipped into the world of Demigods and monsters. With both kinds of Amazons acting strange, can Cassie and her siblings save the day before the Justice League is taken down from within? T because I might use "adult" language later.
1. The Storm Spirit that started everything

Chapter 1: The Storm Spirit that started everything

It was already a bad day when the Storm Spirit attacked. He just made it worse.

Wait, I should back up. Tell this from the beginning.

My name is Cassie. I'm sixteen years old. And I'm also a superhero in my spare time (what little there is). And _no,_ I do _not _wear spandex.

One more thing; Percy says if I'm going to write it all down like he did, I have to put a warning in.

As cool as it sounds, you don't want to be one of us. It's actually _safer _to be a superhero than a half-blood. So, if you feel something stirring inside as you read, drop this book and _run. _If you figure it out, so will they. And they will come after you.

Alright, I suppose I should start with the day before the attack, when I quit my job.

I was at the Cave (which is the base of operations for The Team, all of the proteges of the Justice League), training with my mentor, Wonder Woman. In case you haven't guessed, my alter ego is Wonder Girl (shh). Anyway, we were fighting. And not like we usually did, which was sparring. No, this was an argument. After everything with the alien invasion, I had matured, and I felt I was ready to take on bigger things. She disagreed. Things had become...strained, to say the least.

"I'm ready to help you with bigger problems!" I shouted.

"You've only been training under me for a year! You can't handle it!" she yelled right back. For someone who preached diplomacy, she was being very dictator-like.

"A year, yeah. But it was a long year! I grew up! Why can't you see that!"

"Because despite your self-proclaimed 'maturity' you're throwing a fit like a child!" _That _sent me over the edge. I pulled off my bracelets, stuck my lasso through them, and tossed them to Wonder Woman.

"Fine. If I'm such a child, I quit. Good-bye." I was forcing my voice to be calm, but I was dying on the inside. What had happened to sisters-in-arms, or just the great mentor-mentee relationship everyone else seemed to have?

The look on Wonder Woman's face was shocked.

"Cassie-"

"No. I'm done," I told her, then I reached up and took out the star earrings she gave me when I first started. Later, I would realize that it was a huge mistake. Wonder Woman was only trying to protect me.

But just then, I walked out, leaving everything about my superhero life behind. My one regret was that as I walked away, I could feel my power slipping too. Zeus (the king of the Gods) had given me these powers to be Wonder Girl, and now that I quit, they were leaving me. That alone, the feeling of helplessness, was enough to make me want to run back and beg her forgiveness. But I wouldn't do it. It was time for me to grow up, I told myself. No more games of Gods and superheroes.

I was only half right.

I managed to keep from crying until I got home, where I collapsed on my bed and sobbed for a good hour. What had I done? I loved being Wonder Girl, it had become my whole life. I looked at myself in the mirror. Red eyes, hair a little scruffy, generally miserable. Yeah, quitting was a great idea. But no matter, I told myself as I cleaned up. I could be a great person without the powers, without the double life. I...

My self pep-talk was interrupted by the storm spirit (bet you were wondering when we'd get to that, huh?) that broke through the french doors to my balcony.

I had seen them before, with Wonder Woman. Depending on how chaotic they were, they looked like horses or humans.

This was a horse. Joy. And without powers or my weapons, I was helpless. So I ran. Out the door of my room, down the stairs to the closet, where the Gauntlets of Atlas and the Sandals of Hermes should have been.

They were gone.

_No, no, no! _ The gods must have taken them after I quit. And without them, I was doomed. I always thought I'd go in the line of duty, not as monster chow!

I started running again, but the dang thing was too fast. It cornered me in the backyard. I was silently praying to all the gods that I would get out of this somehow when my gym coach came out of nowhere and clubbed it over the head and it dissolved into dust, like monsters do after you defeat them. It seems like a great way to avoid cleanup, but it took _forever _ to get out of your hair.

"Coach Hedge?" I asked, shakily. Then I noticed that my coach didn't really... look like himself. From the waist up, he was the same except for the horns emerging from his curly hair. His legs were the real shock.

They were **_goat's_** legs.

Oh my Gods. My gym teacher was a saytr.

"Hey, kid. How'd ya do it?" he seemed completely unperturbed by what had just happened.

"Do what?" I asked. _He _was the one who had killed the thing.

"Hide your sent. It's pretty darn powerful. Didn't even realize you were one until today."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," that seemed to confuse him, then his face cleared into understanding. I only wished I could do the same.

"Extraction team's on the way. They'll explain everything."

"Explain _what_?" I was seriously confused by now. Before he could answer, a flying chariot pulled by two Pegasi came roaring to a halt on my mom's favorite rosebush.

Out jumped two guys, both in maybe their early-to-mid twenties. One was Hispanic, with a wild look in his eyes and matching crazy hair, and the other was tall, black-haired and green eyed. When they saw me, clearly just off a fight and Hedge standing with his club and the gold dust monsters leave behind all around, they seemed more exasperated than concerned. Perhaps they often were in this situation.

"This the girl, Hedge?" the black-haired guy asked.

"Yup. Powerful, too. Somehow missed it until today," Coach Hedge replied. He and the others continued talking, but I was too much in shock to really hear the words being said until the curly haired dude said something I couldn't ignore.

"We have to take her to camp right away, if she's as powerful as you say, there's more evil espresso drinks where he came from," he said, gesturing to the dust. The comment about evil espresso drinks threw me off a little-\but what _really_ got me was the "take her" part of the conversation.

"Whoa! Stop right there and back it up, buster. I'm not going _anywhere _with you! I don't even know you and you want to take me to some random camp? I'm still processing the fact my _gym teacher _is a saytr!" I admit I was being hysterical, but can you blame me?

Coach Hedge got mad quick.

"Listen here, cupcake, you're not safe here, and the best place for you to be is Camp. If you want to stay here, don't expect us to save your sorry hide next time."

"I can take care of myself," Coach Hedge snorted.

"Sure, that's why you were running," At this point, dark-hair intervened.

"Just trust us, Cassie. Come to camp, and meet our director. Let us explain, then decide."

I mulled this over, subtly looking over them. Hedge I wasn't worried about. For all his heroics, he really wasn't that much of a threat to someone like me with years of training. The Crazy-haired kid looked wiry, but had a sense of confidence that almost screamed 'meta-human powers', and the dark-haired guy was very well muscled and seemed to have been in years of training. I could take them with my powers no problem, but only maybe now I was normal. If there was something going on, and they wanted me for bad reasons, better an (ex)superhero than a normal kid.

"Where is this camp?" I asked.

"Long Island," he told me. I quickly calculated the distance from the cave to Long Island. Almost two hundred miles, but close enough I could call for help from the team. And if the camp turned out to be okay, far enough from home and the cave they wouldn't look there.

"Okay," I said. All three looked relieved.

"I'm Percy, and this is Leo," dark-hai- Percy said, gesturing to the other guy. Hedge started walking the direction of school as we took off to parts unknown.

Soon we were speeding into the air in the flying chariot.


	2. When in (New) Rome do as the Greeks do?

_**Chapter Two: When in (New) Rome do as the... Greeks do?**_

If you're wondering what it's like riding in a flying chariot, let me tell you; it's not for the faint of heart. It's basically a box on wheels that's open at the back, pulled by flying horses five hundred feet in the air. If you fall, I hope you can fly or are indestructible.

One more thing; it is the fourth fastest way across the country. The first is by Zeta Tube, which is a teleporter the Justice League uses. The second is by Speedster (Flash, Kid Flash, Impulse, etc.), and the third is a tie between the Batwing (Batman's plane) and self propelled flight, like Superman, Wonder Woman or (previously) me. It only took a few hours to get to Long Island from my house in California.

I spent most of the ride feeling the wind on my face, pretending that I was flying on my own. It's a rush, knowing you are defying gravity and feeling yourself moving so fast... But I'm getting off topic. I was nervous as we came up on Long Island, passing farms and orchards below. Then we got to camp.

First off, camp isn't even the right word. The place was the size of a small ancient Greek City-State, complete with _City. _It glistened in the middle of the camp, surrounded by a river in a capital G shape. To the right of the city were military barracks, as well as a hill with several temples that looked like Roman architecture. To the left was a valley with a lake and a forest to the side, filled with buildings that looked more like Greek architecture, but it was also home to a group of Hodge-podge buildings in the shape of a Greek Omega. No two were alike, even from our rapidly shrinking distance. There was also inexplicably a large blue farmhouse, and both sides of the camp were guarded by a hill with a single tall pine tree while Long Island Sound glittered in the distance.

"New Rome," Leo told me, pointing to the city.

"Camp Jupiter," he pointed to the military camp, "Temple hill," the hill next to Camp Jupiter, "and Camp Half-Blood, where we're going," he pointed at the valley, indicating the farmhouse in particular. I held on to the side of the chariot as we rapidly descended, coming to land in front of the house.

"Welcome to the Big House," Percy told me. Seeing as that was another word for prison, it didn't make me feel better. At least it looked nicer than Belle Reve. He led me around the wraparound porch as Leo led off the Pegasi, probably to the stables I had seen coming into camp.

With the way my day was going I was expecting another strange thing, like dancing hippopotami or something. But it was a fairly normal, just two guys sitting at a table, playing cards. The seemingly obligatory weird part was the two satyrs playing with them. They seemed rather nervous around the fat guy in purple, like he was their temperamental boss, but the other man, who was in a wheelchair, sent off a 'good-guy' vibe to me. They finished the hand (Wheelchair guy won) and then Purple guy looked up at me with disinterest.

"Oh goodie, another one. Well, what's your name?" He drawled. He wasn't even looking at me.

"Cassie Sandsmark," I said, only allowing a little of my irritation get into my voice. He promptly put down the cards and looked over me. Then I saw the strange purple fire barely repressed in his eyes. This guy was a god. So I quickly tacked on "sir". Wheelchair guy was looking at me too, now.

"Ah, yes, I see. Well then, I don't think that the usual orientation video is needed. You may go, Mr. Johannson."

"Jackson," Percy muttered. He gave me an odd look, then complied and left. After a nod from the unidentified god, and the satyrs followed. Wheelchair man spoke.

"Welcome Cassie, to Camp Half-Blood. I do not think we need to tell you that the gods, who you would refer to as the Greek gods, are alive and well and living in America today."

I nodded. I did know this. The gods had moved from Greece when it fell, to Rome, then on, following Western Civilization. These days, Olympus was above the Empire State Building. I had been a couple years ago, when I asked Zeus for powers of my own. It was spectacular.

"And do you know why we brought you here?" he asked, tentatively.

"No. All I know is I get attacked by a storm spirit, my gym coach turns out to be a satyr and I got brought here."

Wheelchair guy looked distinctly uncomfortable. This was clearly new territory for him.

"Cassie, you were brought to camp because you are a demigod," before I could do more than let my mouth fall open in shock he continued.

"Allow me to properly introduce my self. I am Chiron," And then he started to stand, and by that, I don't mean he had a sudden miraculous recovery. I mean that the legs turned out to be fake as the wheelchair popped open and he came out in full centaur form. From the waist down, this unassuming guy, who looked like a high school English teacher, was a pure white stallion.

I suddenly felt very overwhelmed. For one, me, a demigod? I mean, yes, I knew that the gods ran around and had kids with mortals all the time in the old tales, but that didn't happen today. Then again, leopards don't change their spots either. But there was one other thing bothering me...

"My mom told me my dad was dead."

Chiron and the god exchanged looks like: typical. God dude huffed and then said exactly that.

"Typical, didn't want to explain that daddy ran off and she didn't know why, so she tells them he was a good man who died. Pffft."

I could go on with the conversation, but it was pretty straightforward from there. My father was a god, I was at the only safe place for demigods in the world, and depending on whether I was Greek or Roman (the two main aspects of the gods and their children), I would be put in either Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter respectively. I _should _have been claimed at age thirteen, but something had prevented my new found father from doing so apparently. He would most likely claim me at the campfire. And I figured out that the god was Dionysus after I saw the wine connoisseur magazine on the table.

Another demigod, Grace, daughter of Hermes, showed me around the camps, then took me to a small cafe in New Rome for coffee as I processed.

"You're taking this a lot better than most people, you know. Most call us crazy and try to walk out," She told me.

"Yeah, well, hold on, the shock might get me yet," I said, only half-joking. We paid for our drinks in drachma and denari, then left.

I spent the designated free period of Camp Half-Blood up at the Big House. It was then my phone went off. When I saw the blocked number, I was pretty sure I knew who it was; the leader of the Team, Nightwing.

"Hello?"

"Cassie, it's Nightwing. What's this about you quitting?" he asked.

"I was sick of it. I don't really think I'm cut out for hero stuff anyway," I told him. I left out the, _not if I'm hiding from monsters the rest of my life. _I knew the moment I left camp, most would smell me and I was easy pickings. Kinda hard to maintain a secret identity if you keep getting attacked.

"Not cut out? Really, because just last week you were all gung ho and in it for the long haul," damn him and his perception.

"Look. I'm dealing with family stuff right now," I told him. Not a complete lie, just an incomplete truth.

"What exactly do you mean?"

I cringed. This had to be done delicately, or he'd see right though it.

"My dad. I know he's dead, but I found out I may have some half-siblings who could tell me about him. I'm curious. And I can't be caught up in Superheroing all my life anyway. I joined on a whim-and it was great!- but I don't think it's me. Not anymore, anyway."

"Not you? A whim? I know what you're doing. You're rationalizing something you think you have to do. So tell me the truth, Cassie. Why'd you quit?"

Time for plan B: get angry. Not that it was hard. I was strung out and upset and waiting to hear from a father I never knew I could hear from. So I walked out on to the abandoned volleyball court, out of earshot of the house, just in case.

"Look, Nightwing. I understand that you're very good at what you do, and at reading people. But nothing you do or say is going to get me back to heroing; I am _done. _I am not rationalizing, I'm stating facts. That isn't my life anymore. I promise to keep everyone's ID's safe, but I can't, _can't, _be Wonder Girl anymore. Goodbye."

I hung up before he could answer, and blew my bangs out of my face. My phone went off again, same number. I denied it, then turned off my phone.

Now, with any luck at all, none of them would show up.

A conch horn sounded for dinner. Grace was lined up with her cabin and gestured at me. I joined her.

"All camper's who are waiting for a sign eat with us," she explained.

Dinner was over quickly, but we did have to sacrifice a portion to the gods. I left mine open-ended.

Then it was finally, _finally, _time for the campfire. We sang all sorts of silly songs that paid tribute to the Greek and Roman gods (the kids from Camp Jupiter had joined us after dinner), while the children of whom I could only assume Apollo strummed guitars and lyres. Then, just after "This land is Minos' land" and as we were getting ready to leave; it happened.

I was suddenly aware of a harsh light from above. I looked up, expecting...well, anything but what I saw.

It was a lightning bolt. Symbol of the king of the Gods, Zeus. Next to it was a Greek Alpha, meaning I was a Greek demigod. Everyone stood up and bowed to me (much to my secret horror) and Chiron spoke solemnly.

"All hail Cassandra Sandsmark, daughter of Zeus, King of the Gods!"


End file.
